Chapter 8; The First Date

"You want me to what?" Simon asked Cecilia. A month had passed since the fight with Laura and its aftermath. Simon and Cecilia had grown closer in that time, but they still weren't technically an 'item.' There was also a frustrating of lack of progress with Ichika, since he still seemed unwilling, or unable, to try and pick one of the three girls competing over him, despite Simon's best efforts to nudge him towards Houki. While Laura and Charlotte were both nice girls, he still felt there was something more between him and the samurai girl. Rin had apparently given up on the idea of winning him over and settled with staying as good friends with them.

But, back to the matter at hand, they had just learned that their class would be taking a trip to a beach nearby for a vacation. And apparently Cecilia didn't have a swimsuit, hence the reason she wanted to go shopping with Simon, something that would undoubtedly turn into a date. Glancing at Ichika and Charlotte, who were sitting next to him in the cafeteria, he saw a grin on Ichika's face and a look from Charlotte that said go on. They had had a light day of classes and been let out early, which left plenty of time left for shopping. Looking back at Cecilia, he said, "Alright, give me a couple minutes to get ready. I'll meet you at the train station, okay?" She just smiled and walked off to prepare herself. "What did I just agree to?" Simon asked as he turned back to the other two. Ichika just started to laugh, and soon Charlotte was, too. Glaring at them indignantly, Simon just waited for them to stop since anything he said or did now would just make it worse.

Charlotte was the first to compose herself, and she looked squarely at the other blonde. "You just agreed to go and have a good time with her. Is that so wrong?" she asked. "N-no, not really. I'm more concerned about what one of you might try." He responded, feeling his cheeks start to warm up. "And why would we try and sabotage your date, Simon?" Ichika asked, amused that he could finally give the other boy grief about romance for a change. "I'm more worried about the others, actually. We haven't seen them since class was let out." This caused the other two to stop and think for a moment. Houki, Rin and Laura were usually with them, to, so since they weren't here it did beg the question; where were they? After some more thought, Charlotte offered a solution. "Why don't Ichika and I go look for them? We can keep them busy until you leave." "You'd run interference for me?" Simon asked. They just nodded, and Simon took a moment to be thankful he had such good friends.

Unknown to any of them, Rin had been listening in from a discreet distance, and she rushed off to prepare herself to follow them. She didn't have any real romantic feelings for Simon, but she did feel like he was a kind of older brother and she felt protective of him for that. I'll just follow them and make sure it goes smoothly she thought. Meanwhile, Simon had returned to his room after leaving Ichika and Charlotte to go looking for their other friends. Picking out a pair of loose jeans, he put them on with a plain t-shirt and his jacket. After making sure that his IS' standby was still secure on his wrist (just in case) he made his way to the train station. Sometimes, being on an island was a real pain. Anytime they needed to go to the mainland for anything, it was either take the one train off the island, or try and hitch a ride with one of the boats. They would have used there IS, but their activation was monitored and any use outside of the stadiums was not a very good idea.

When Simon arrived at the platform, he saw that Cecilia had definitely dressed for the occasion. She was wearing a blue and white dress, a sunhat and carrying what he assumed was a purse that didn't look too expensive, but was clearly more than just a mundane one. In short, she looked beautiful, and he could feel himself blushing again as he walked up behind her. "Isn't that a little much?" he asked, startling her. She turned around and glared at him. "I will have you know that this is how I normally dress, thank you very much." She said, trying to sound indignant and failing. "Relax, I'm just messing with you," he replied, smiling, "Actually, you look good." Rather than responding with another outburst or rant, as he expected, she blushed slightly and looked away. Hearing the train approaching, he moved to stand next to her and waited. "So, are we just going for swimwear, or is there something else you wanted to look for?" he asked, trying to keep them from falling into an awkward silence.

"Well, there's a clothing store that I've heard is quite good." She replied, glancing at him. He just nodded in agreement as the train stopped and they boarded it. Unknown to them, a particular Chinese girl got on the last car just as the doors were closing. Their ride to the mainland was mostly silence as they admired the scenery, although they both remained aware of how close they were sitting to each other. After arriving at the mainland, they decided to take a walk past the other shops on the long way. Taking turns admiring the various clothes and foods, Simon marveled at how bustling the place was considering this wasn't even a major city. Arriving at the store, he turned a few shades darker as he realized what he was there for. Cecilia took her time trying on several swim suits and posing for him, asking for his opinion. The first two went rather well, but as she started to experiment with some of the more, shall we say risky, swimsuits, he started to feel his brain frying.

Finally, after she tried on a plain blue bikini, Simon decided to call it. "Why not get that one? It looks rather good, and it matches your eyes." Smiling and blushing slightly, she walked over to the cashier, although she made it a point to buy one of the other ones that had made him blush rather well, too. They had then decided to take a break at a nearby café before continuing with their shopping. "Wasn't there any swimsuits in there you wanted to try?" Cecilia asked. "What I have works fine. I'm not that stylish," Simon said as he drank his soda, "Besides, most of the men's suits were too close to speedos for my taste, and that's not going to happen, princess." She just blushed at this, and mentally cursed him for it sense she was looking forward to getting him to try at least one of them. Finishing their drinks, Simon left some money on the table and they continued to window shop.

Rin had, up to this point, kept her distance from the two. She had even avoided going into the store for fear of being caught. They seem to be enjoying themselves so far she thought, and hoped that Simon wouldn't do something to screw this up. He could be very kind at times, but like Ichika he could also be infuriatingly dense. That he didn't see the ways Laura looked at him occasionally was something that puzzled her, since he clearly knew how everyone else felt about him and Ichika. After browsing a few more shops, they walked down to one of the water-front parks and sat looking out over the ocean. Cecilia scooted closer to Simon after a bit and rested on his shoulder, saying, "I had fun today." He just nodded in agreement as he put his arm around her, determined to enjoy this moment for all it was worth. And the plan was working, too, until something landed in front of them.

Crashed would be a better word, the shock wave blasting the bench they were sitting on over and sending the two tumbling. What the hell could this be? Rin wondered as she rushed up to help them. As they recovered from the shock, Simon saw that it was another IS, and like the Ogre, its design was unique. The upper part was clearly human and feminine, but from the waist down it looked more like a spider, with eight legs and a large abdomen with orange and black stripes. "What the hell is this?" he asked, moving to shield Cecilia as the unknown turned to him. Before he could summon his IS to defend himself, the spider shot out what looked like webbing, tying him up in moments and letting him drop to the ground. Cecilia had brought up her own IS and immediately stood over Simon, her rifle raised and trained on the thing that dared to attack her almost-boyfriend. By this point, Rin had joined them and was working to get Simon free from the webs.

"Rin, when did you get here?" Simon asked, surprised that she was here at all. "Shut up, idiot, and quit moving so much." She replied before covering her ears as Cecilia engaged the spider IS. She did manage to lure it away from the two, giving Rin some time to free Simon. The spider was tougher than they first thought; each of its legs had some find of weapon. Two were clearly for restraint, since they only seemed to fire that sticky webbing. But the rest used energy weapons, and two even had flamethrowers on them. It was all Cecilia could do to not get cooked, since the damned thing wasn't letting her get any distance on it. After 3 agonizing minutes, Rin managed to free Simon and they both summoned there IS before rushing to back Cecilia up. Simon loosed four of his fangs while Rin opened up with her Shock cannons, forcing the thing to back away.

Landing next to Cecilia, Simon raised his sword and prepared for another attack. "What the hell are you, and who sent you?" he demanded, taking a step forward. It just stood there, looking at the three pilots for a minute before turning away and flying out over the water. Before they could move to pursue it, the spider dropped into the water and was gone. "Anyone else think that was too easy?" Simon asked, but was ignored. "Good riddance." Rin said as she destructed her IS and stared out over the water. Cecilia and Simon followed suit, although after he did he walked up behind Rin and lightly smacked the back of her head. "Hey, what was that for, idiot?" she demanded, whirling around to face him. "That was for spying on us a second time." He said before breaking into a smile, "But thanks for the help." Trying to stay mad was beyond her ability, and Rin just ended up smiling back. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't do something stupid." She said before walking off.

"Did you know she was there the whole time?" Cecilia asked, slightly embarrassed that they had been spied on, again. "Not until she came up to untie me." He responded, turning to look at the crater that the unknown had made. "You think Chifuyu is going to blame us for this?" "I cannot imagine how. We weren't doing anything to attract it." "You know," he began, turning to look at her, "she's going to ask us to tell her exactly what we were doing when it arrived, right?" Cecilia just turned red at the thought of describing her date to her teacher. Yeah, it was going to be an interesting conversation.

Their conversation with Chifuyu, more of an interrogation, wasn't as humiliating as they had both assumed it would be. She was less interested in the personal details as she was in the mysterious IS that had attacked them. "I don't know what else I can tell you," Simon said, leaning back and clearly ready for this to be done and over with, "It landed, wrapped me up in some kind of web and then proceeded to fight Cecilia." "It's that second part that's concerning me, Simon." she said, all seriousness. "The fact that it took the time to tie you up rather than fight you is telling." They just sat there staring at their teacher, not really following. Sighing, she explained, "From what you tell me, it could have easily subdued both of you long before you could use your IS. Instead, it focused solely on you, Simon. Can you tell me why?"

Thinking for a moment, he responded, "Jealousy?" causing Cecilia to blush and Chifuyu to glare daggers at him. "Could you try not being a smartass for five minutes?" she asked, receiving a shrug as an answer. "Ms. Orimura, does this mean that the class trip is cancelled?" Cecilia asked, trying to change to subject. "Well, while I would like to after this event, I can't well punish the entire class for something that wasn't your fault." She said, "Just promise me that you will both be careful." "Yes, ma'am," they both said as they left Chifuyu's office. After they were safely out of ear-shot, Cecilia turned to Simon and asked, "Do you think it was targeting you specifically?" "No clue," he said as he continued out of the building and towards the dorms, "But it won't get that lucky a second time." "Guess it was a good thing Rin followed us then." Cecilia said, snickering at how Simon's face turned pink at that. It felt better than she thought it would to be able to tease him back without worrying about embarrassing herself. They parted a little awkwardly at the elevators, promising that they would do this again.

When Simon finally made it back to his room, it was to be met with the sight of Tatenashi toying with Ichika, who looked confused and embarrassed since all the girl was wearing was her swimsuit. She had currently pinned him in a corner, asking him how it looked and leaning towards him rather suggestively. "The fuck did I just walk in on?" Simon asked, giving Ichika an opening to dive to the side and get Simon's bed between him and the possibly psychotic Russian. Tatenashi turned to him and giggled, spreading her fan in front of her. "What's wrong, Feli? Jealous that he's getting all the attention?" she asked, walking over to him and swaying her hips. "Damnit, woman, I thought I asked you to quit that!" He said as he backed up towards the door, only to bump into someone with a rather large chest. Please God, don't let this be Cecilia he thought as he turned around. While it wasn't her, it was almost as bad. Houki was standing there, looking between the three of them, stunned and blushing a bit. "Uh, I can explain," he began before Houki exploded about the indecency of this and let loose on the two boys with her wooden sword. Needless to say, there was much pain that night.

The next day they were waiting at the station with their class, both of them nursing numerous bruises they had received from Houki. "Damn, your girlfriend hits hard." Simon said, rubbing a particularly sore spot on the back of his head. Ichika just turned a light pink and mumbled something under his breath. Before Simon could ask him to repeat it, the girls walked up and joined them, Houki still looking rather pissed off. While he would have loved to try and smooth things over, bringing up last night with Cecilia around was probably not the wisest choice. The decision, however, was not his to make. "So, what was a second-year doing in your room last night, Ichika?" Rin asked, the smile on her face clearly borrowed from some devil. "It's not like that," Ichika said, trying to avoid Houki's glare, "Besides, I think she was there looking for Simon."

Ichika, you traitor he thought as Cecilia joined in the glaring, her gaze turning on Simon. "What was that?" she asked, her words causing both boys to have their blood run cold. "I-it wasn't like that, honest!" he said, trying to back away from her, "She was just my temporary roommate, and we did start to get along-" "Oh, so it's like that, huh, Feli?" Rin asked, clearly enjoying herself. "Feli? She calls you Feli?!" Cecilia asked, stalking up to the blonde. You will pay for this, Rin he thought as Cecilia summoned a laser bit. Before it could go much further, the train arrived and the two boys darted on, thankful for the distraction. They made it a point to share a seat, trying to avoid the two girl's wrath. Rin sat in front of them with Charlotte, laughing to herself. As the train started to move, Simon leaned forward and whispered, "You will pay for that one, small fry." She ignored him, content that she had won that particular one.

The ride was thankfully uneventful, although Simon's attempts to talk with Houki and Cecilia met with failure. They clearly needed some time to cool off. Sighing, he grabbed his IPod from his bag and brought up his music. Starting up one of his longer playlists, Simon leaned back and closed his eyes and tried to nap, since he hadn't exactly slept well last night. His dream, however, was not one that he would enjoy.

"All systems green, Gospel ready for launch." Sarah said, the excitement in her voice clear, even through the com link. Simon just smiled at his sister's image on the screen. Truth be told, he was nervous as hell about this test flight. It would be the first time the Gospel was out of the lab, and there were a number of things that could go wrong. Turning to the monitor in front of him, he verified that all of its systems were in the green. He nodded at the test overseer, who turned to the monitor and said, "Copy that, Gospel, you are clear for launch."

With a whoop, Sarah triggered the catapult, launching into the test arena and immediately taking flight. At least the flight system works fine Simon thought as he tried to divide his attention between his status screen and the observation window. What he wouldn't give to be out there with her, flying around in one of the most advanced pieces of technology ever designed. He had already made it a point to meet the inventor, Tabane Shinonono, before he died. The Overseer was directing Sarah through a series of obstacles, testing to make sure the Gospel was as maneuverable as they needed it to be.

"Alright, Sarah, we're going to bring up the training dummies. Let's test out those energy weapons." He said, gesturing to another controller to trigger the target drones. Simon turned to the Overseer, confused. "Sir, I thought this was just a test flight?" "Not anymore. The Director wants to know that this thing's weapons are up to snuff." "But, we haven't finished the calibration of that system." Simon protested, standing up and facing him fully. "Either do your job or excuse yourself, Felix. This is happening." The Overseer said, turning his attention back to the field. Damnit, why won't they listen to him?

Simon sat back down and tried to return to his duties, but his mind was plagued with a host of concerns. However, Sarah was progressing through the targets rather well; her shots where all on target and had the power required to blow the drones away. He began to think everything was going to be alright. They wouldn't clear it for weapons testing if it wasn't ready he thought, they must have done work on the system while I was away. Suddenly, part of his screen started to flash, grabbing his attention. One of the capacitors in the right arm was showing fluctuations, flickering in and out of the yellow, but it was enough to make Simon concerned.

Triggering his own com link, he said, "Sarah, easy off the particle beam for a moment, we got a fluctuation here." The Overseer walked over to Simon, looking at the screen and frowning. "Does this constitute a danger?" he asked, his voice showing a slight amount of concern. "I don't think so, but-" "Then we continue." He said, turning away and ordering her to resume the test. Simon tried to protest, saying that any fluctuation in a prototype could be hazardous, but he was again ignored. Simon was trying to come up with a way to stop the test when several of the warning lights began to flash, setting off an alarm.

"What's happening?" the Overseer asked, turning to him. "It's a cascading overload. The fail-safes aren't responding!" Simon said as he felt himself start to panic. Activating his com, he tried to warn his sister. "Sarah! You need to deactivate that IS! Force a shutdown, now!" She started to respond when the link cut out. They crew in the observation bay watched in horror as a chain reaction began on the suit. It was like watching firecrackers go off as parts of the suit began to overload and explode. Sarah was thrown around by the force of the explosions, which were becoming stronger with each detonation as the power had fewer places to go. The com link finally reconnected, but all they got was a pain-filled scream before it cut out again. Finally, the IS detonated in a large explosion, at which point Simon finally found his voice again.

"Sarah!"

Simon woke with a start, shooting upright and nearly head-butting Rin, who had been leaning over her seat and talking with Ichika. "Watch it, idiot." Rin said, though she looked more concerned than angry. Ichika did, to, asking, "Bad dream?" Shaking his head to clear it, Simon muttered, "You could say that." before he leaned back and closed his eyes again. Sensing that he didn't want to discuss it, Rin and Ichika started talking again, making plans for what to do first once they arrived. Simon, meanwhile, was brooding over his dream. It was always a little different each time; sometimes they would listen to him and he could avoid the whole situation. Other times it would be much worse; he would find that the com link would stay connected the whole time, allowing him to hear her pain as the IS exploded.

While he knew that most of these dreams were just his mind playing with the memory, this particular one was close enough to real events to leave him shaken. Leaning forward and rubbing his face to try and shake the feeling, he repeated the promise he had made to himself after that event. I will never let that happen again he swore for what was probably the hundredth time. Opening his eyes, he noticed Cecilia staring at him and looking concerned. "Something wrong, Simon?" she asked. "Nothing is wrong, just didn't get enough sleep last night." He said. "Oh? And I wonder why that is, Feli?" Rin said, starting the glaring up again.

I know I said it would become an AU with the introduction of the Silver Gospel, but I couldn't help myself. Also, enjoy the massive teaser there with the dream. Just a taste of how bad things might become.

Anyway, I apologize for the long wait, but the last people that had my dorm room fucked up the Ethernet jacks, and as a result I had got to do without an internet connection for a while. Decided to take the time to do a rewrite on the previous material to correct some grammar and improve the flow, so if you notice a change, that's the reason.